Opinion

Keeping up with changing times

Bill Plante's North Shore
Published: November 20, 2009

Two news items caught my eye on Tuesday morning. Both relate to considerations of governance.

The New York Times article had to do with the politics of the redistricting of New York state.

That of the Daily News related to changes in municipal health care oversight by Newburyport, Amesbury and Salisbury that might still be possible should the issues in play for Newburyport be resolved at some future time.

The one had to do with political structures. The other had to do with the proportionate sharing of administrative services, expenses and control.

There's nothing new about remaking political districts. The desire by those in power to retain the status quo or those out of power to seek changes to strengthen their bases has long been an art form.

What is becoming "new'' is an awareness at local levels of what has been in process for more than a century — a steady and persistent growth of federal and state laws and regulations as they confront those we elect in our cities and towns. That is a more persistently intrusive reality faced by community governments that are slow to change their structures.

Amesbury changed its charter's form after long consideration, and Newburyport is about to launch a study relating to its own. Both are attempts to make representation more relevant to communities considerably changed by the nature of their growth and the need to respond to state and federal demands.

Early charters dealt with the realities of their times. So does Newburyport's.

There's a price to be paid locally for federal and state grants or demands. We need to conform to regulatory authority in all matters relative thereto, and local governance has become far more demanding than is generally appreciated.

That is central to the question facing those in Newburyport chosen to address possible changes in the 1920 charter. It isn't the same Newburyport in existence at that time. It is not the same Newburyport that predated the growth of its West End when it was sparsely settled. It is not the same city with the central business district of post-WWII, or the Newburyport without an industrial park or the Anna Jaques Hospital as Newburyport's seniors knew it to be.

It is no longer the Newburyport with a high school that formerly welcomed students from Newbury and Rowley because there are now regional high schools, but administration of all schools has been increasingly burdened by state and federal initiatives and requirements and budget controls are far more complex.

It is not the Newburyport with neighborhood food and drugstores handy in most wards, and a "downtown'' where shopping for everything from food to hardware, furniture and a variety of drug and clothing stores was accessible by half-hourly public transportation.

It is not the Newburyport where fuse, shoe, television, manufacturers and a rum distillery were scattered from Joppa to the North End's upper Merrimack Street, where Shawmut remains as a reminder of what was. Newburyport's share of Plum Island, together with Newbury's, was a place of summer cottages with scant winter populations and no central fresh water or sewage service. Plum Island is now a place of upscale houses and a growing identity reflected in the politics of both communities.

What Newburyport does have is a form of government designed to accommodate the realities of the early 20th century. There's no need to reject the past ways that served well for more than a century, but this is an opportunity to make changes that could provide better municipal expertise in confronting and resolving the realities of today, and to work intelligently with other communities to share in whatever is both practical and mutually beneficial.

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Bill Plante is former executive editor of Essex County Newspapers. His e-mail address is plantejr@comcast.net.